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By Jon Paul Hoornstra
Contributing Sports Writer
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Phil Meeler, a left-handed pitcher whose cup of coffee with the Detroit Tigers in 1972 punctuated a decorated minor league career, died Tuesday. He was 77.
"Phillip was always one of my favorite teammates to this day," former minor league teammate Michael Kotzin wrote on Meeler's obituary page on Montlawn.com. "He was part of our daily email and text thread. He was a class guy and will be truly missed."
Meeler went 0-1 with a 4.32 ERA in seven major league appearances with the Tigers, the only organization he played for across eight professional seasons.
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In August 1966, the Tigers dispatched scout George Ferrell to Greensboro, N.C. to sign the 18-year-old Meeler away from interested colleges. A star at Smith High School, Meeler told the Greensboro Record that he received scholarship offers from Elon and Catawba College, but elected to turn pro after going 17-3 over his final two seasons of high school ball.
Meeler began his career the following year, reporting to the Tigers' camp in Lakeland, Florida, for spring training. He split the 1967 season between Statesville, N.C. and Erie, Pa., going 9-15 with a 4.72 ERA across the two lowest levels of the minor league ladder.
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In 1969, Meeler would record 28 saves for the Rocky Mount (N.C.) Leafs, which stood as the official Carolina League record until 1982.
The Tigers would not promote Meeler to the Double-A level until 1970, his fourth professional season. His three games with the Montgomery (Ala.) Rebels would mark the first of his four stints with Detroit's affiliate in the Southern League.
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Finally in 1972, Meeler got the call to the big leagues. He joined manager Billy Martin's bullpen in Detroit for a rare in-season exhibition game against the Houston Astros on May 9 — a game that was called in the fifth inning with temperatures in the low 40s.
The next day in Chicago, Meeler made his official debut in a game that counted. When Tigers starting pitcher Tom Timmerman suffered a torn fingernail, Martin was forced to remove him in the fourth inning of a 0-0 game.
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Meeler entered and allowed three runs in the sixth inning of an eventual 7-0 defeat to the White Sox, the direct result of an error by Tigers shortstop Ed Brinkman. Meeler took the loss, the only decision of his brief major league career.
Although Meeler would not allow a run in four of his next six appearances, he was sent back to Triple-A Toledo, never to appear in another MLB game. He would finish with an 0-1 with a 4.32 ERA in his career.
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Meeler would split the 1973 and 1974 seasons between Double-A and Triple-A. He was one of 175 players invited to participate in the Tigers' 1975 spring training camp in Lakeland, where his career would end in the most abrupt manner possible.
In March, Meeler was pitching batting practice when his name was summoned by loudspeaker to the office of Hoot Evers, the Tigers' director of player development in charge of roster cuts. Teammate Greg Kuhl, writing about the incident in the Franklin (Kentucky) Favorite, recounted Meeler's final pitch.
"Luckily, the batter heard the announcement and, to his everlasting credit and safety, leaned back on his heels," Kuhl wrote. "That was fortunate because Meeler's fastball would have flattened, if not maimed, him. The ball crashed six feet up the backstop, 60 feet behind home plate. Meeler stormed off the mound and never threw another pitch in professional baseball."
Meeler would retire to North Carolina, where he is survived by his wife, Cathy.
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